Tuesday

How to Blackout line Store-bought Drapes - No Sew

This project was done during those two hectic weeks before my guest arrive this past Summer. The whole guest room was updated on a thrifty way and I was also looking for thrifty window options. I already had the blackout roman shade but as I told you before, my husband hated how lines of light passed through the sides of the shade.

So, I planned on leaving the roman shade, but adding drapes to fix the issue of the light coming through the sides. My first thought was to sew a couple of blackout lined burlap panels and I even bought the 20 feet of burlap I needed ---> around $60. Yikes! not as cheap as I thought. :/

Then, luck stroke... I won a $50 Home Goods gift card, so I went shopping, I was mainly looking for accessories, but then, I happened to see these oversized drapery panels, 2/pcs for only $30! Of course I bought them. The price was good and I didn't even have to sew them!

At home, I asked my daughter to hold one of the panels against all the light coming thru the window, ha, almost see thru. :) Even with the burlap, I knew I had to add the blackout. The good thing was, I already had the blackout material from some old drapes.

Before I tell you what was done, I have to warn you: This is a Non-Professional way to line your drapes. It works, it's easy, you don't even need to sew it, but if you're a perfectionist, perhaps this is not the way you should go.

I've sewn drape panels from scratch, I've lined them in a supposedly professional way, but I hated it. Dealing with those big panels, passing them through the sewing machine, is not easy. When I did it, I wished I had a gigantic table to iron the whole thing, to pinned it, but no, working on the floor is the only option, even this time around. :(

So, this is how it all went.

1. The drape panel was placed flat on the floor, right side down.

2. The blackout panel was placed on top of the drape, right side up. *Since I already had the blackout panel ready, I had to do nothing, all the sides were already hemmed. You just need to hem the lower part of the blackout.

The drape panel overhangs about 1½" on each side and 1" on the lower part.

As I said before, my blackout material was taken from a previous drape, I had to cut off the pinch pleated top it had.

3. Iron well both fabrics, then using stitch Witchery tape, hem both sides.

Working on the floor is unavoidable. :/ Here I am, pressing those seams. There on the back you can see the bolt of burlap ready to be returned.

4. For the top part I cut off the grommets, trying to leave the most I could of the panel. The blackout has to be 4" or 5" shorter than the panel.

5. In order to make this top part stronger, a piece of drapery tape is added (I had no tape at hand, I used a somewhat hard material I could find ). Use the stitch Witchery tape to make the first fold from the panel to the tape and then from the tape to the blackout. Don't forget to close both ends too.

And that's it! To make mine a bit stronger I went ahead and used my sewing machine to stitch the top.
Big difference huh.

I used drapery clips to hang them in place.
It was important that the panels were oversized ---> 96" long. The height of this room is exactly that, 8' > 96" and look at how high they went.

Hey, my husband is happy there's no more light coming in from the sides when he uses this room.

Great Job Cristina!!! Sounds like a win, win, win situation. Your hubby happy with no light streaming in, your visitors happy they can sleep in late without sun streaming in, and you have the satisfaction of knowing you were successful with a frugal re-purposing of materials on hand and yet a very special project that made others happy. Very nice tutorial.